Nationwide backbone to be completed by November 2009

The building of a metropolitan network in Kigali based on the national fibre-optic backbone will be completed by December 2008, claims AllAfrica citing comments from the Rwanda Information Technology Authority (RITA). On completion, extensive deployment covering 30 districts across the country will be initiated, which in turn is forecast to be finished by November 2009. The national backbone will be in the region of 1,600km and 2,000km in length, but the actual length will be shown from a study being undertaken by South Korea’s KT Corp, leaders of the project, to be published by October. The cost of the deployment has been estimated at between USD20 million and USD40 million. The government has promised that the network will be open to private sector telcos, provided they agree a price with whichever company is managing it.